Enchanted (The Accidental Billionaires #4)(17)

I saw Diego across the park and waved to him. “There’s Diego.”

“Great,” Noah grumbled. “Now I can watch him salivate all over you again.”

I jerked my head toward him in shock. “He doesn’t.”

Noah grimaced. “He does. His eyes are on you when they should be on the damn road.”

“He’s a guide,” I reminded him. “He wants a good tip.”

“He wants to fuck you,” he retorted sharply. “God, Andie, how could you miss it? The bastard was undressing you with his eyes the entire time he was looking at you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. He’s a married man.”

“Not to mention twice your age,” he added, sounding disgruntled. “Are you planning on doing this tour alone tomorrow?”

“If you won’t go with me, yes. Obviously.”

“I’m going,” he answered firmly as we moved to meet up with Diego. “Maybe I haven’t been around for your other trips, but I can make sure you get home from this one safely. Tell me that Diego isn’t the tour guide.”

“He’s not.”

“Thank God. I couldn’t take an entire day and night watching him watch you. He’s nauseating.”

If I didn’t know better, I’d almost say that Noah was jealous. I chewed on my bottom lip as I reminded myself that he was a natural protector. He was just concerned. He certainly didn’t covet me in particular.

“It’s a long trip. All day and some of the evening,” I warned.

“Fine,” he agreed.

My heart warmed as I glanced at him. Maybe his perception that I needed his protection was misguided, but I was going to be able to get him away from work for an entire day and most of the evening.

I was going to savor that victory, and ignore the fact that he seemed to think every guy who looked at me was thinking dirty thoughts.

Ha! Like any guy would really drool over my short, curvy body and overly large food-lover butt?

But I’d let Noah keep his delusions as long as it motivated him to come with me and leave his computer in our hotel suite.





CHAPTER 6

NOAH



“So how did you learn to speak Spanish?” I asked Andie as we had a glass of wine together on our patio later that night.

Our current situation was a little unreal for a few reasons.

Number one . . . I didn’t drink wine.

And number two . . . I didn’t exactly lounge around on a patio.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my laptop back from Andie, so it wasn’t like I had anything else to do.

The heat of the day was over, and the nighttime was cooler, making the patio a very pleasant place to hang out if I was unable to work.

I’d even bought the crap Andie had fed me about a glass of red wine being good for me, so here I was.

I’d been fucking relieved to get her away from Diego. Bullshit that the man wasn’t undressing Andie with his eyes during the whole damn tour. In fact, I was almost positive he was imagining taking her in a bunch of different positions while he was looking at her salaciously.

His intentions were crystal clear.

I probably recognized it because I couldn’t help but look at her the same damn way.

Minus the creepiness of being twice her age and married, of course.

Was she really that clueless? The lecher had wanted more than a good tip. I was pretty sure he would have traded any amount of money to get Andie into the sack.

Good riddance, I’d said. I’d been elated to see the sorry bastard drive away.

If I hadn’t been there, I had no doubt that the grandfather guide would have definitely put the moves on her.

He’d had no way of knowing that she wasn’t my woman, and he’d still been bold enough to flirt with her and check her out every moment he was with us.

It had been a relief to dump the bastard when we’d gotten back to the resort. I’d wrapped my arm around Andie’s shoulders and dragged her away before the idiot could try to get her number as we parted.

I made a mental note that maybe we should act more like a couple to keep the men off her.

How could she not have noticed that the asshole had wanted to screw her? It had been perfectly evident to me.

“I’m actually fluent in Spanish, French, and Italian. I also speak some German. And a smattering of other languages. I started learning as a kid, and I accelerated my learning as an adult with tutors.” She made it sound like it was no big deal that she was multilingual.

To me, it was extraordinary. “That’s a pretty big accomplishment.”

She shrugged as she sipped her wine on the lounger right next to mine. “Not really. I always knew that I wanted to see the world. I think it’s ridiculous to visit a foreign country and expect the people there to speak English. There aren’t all that many regular Americans who speak an extra language fluently unless they have an immigrant parent. Why should we expect foreigners to speak English when we’re visiting their country? If I want to play in their playground, I need to speak the language, or at least know some.”

It made perfect sense, but I hadn’t imagined that Andie was so accomplished. It wasn’t easy to speak one foreign language, much less several.

Truth was, I really didn’t know Andie at all anymore, and I knew I was about to give in to my curiosity to find out just how she’d changed.